Uluru National Park (Ayers Rock) Travel Forum

I am considering doing a day trip to Kings Canyon during my stay in Uluru.

1) As a foreign driver, can I drive a car in Australia? Are there any restrictions?

2) Is it worth it to do the drive myself or better to use a tour company?

Thanks

Hi
About the restrictions you should contact a rental car company, perhaps your age might be a problem !!

Guided tour - selfdrive: an everlasting question, which 'we' can not solve for you. it depends on what you want: flexibulity or everything arranged.
But be aware for this trip: the distance one way to Kings Canyon is about 300 km's !!!

happy travels
jaap

I personally prefer the flexibility. I am a little worried about driving on the "wrong" side of the road though.

My plan is to mid morning to go towards Kings Canyon, do a hike, sleep over there, get up early to do another hike and then come back to Uluru. This way, its only 3.5 hours per day, not 7 in one.

What do you think about that?

Don't worry about the wrong side of the road. You will see just a couple of other cars, that is no problem at all.

Your plan sounds a lot better. Where do you intend to stay ??
We did sleep in Kings Creek Station (about 35 km's from King's Canyon)in a kind of a 'tent'. See their website: www.kingscreekstation.com.au

jaap

I figured I would stay at Kings Canyon Resort, beacuse its so close and I can go back and hike in the morning.

Unless I hear its absolutely an awful place to stay....

not awful, but (rather) expensive ....

G'day! Just browing the forums and saw you're talking abt Kings Canyon Resort, would like to share my time there with you:

I stayed in a '4-bed dorm room' with my friend in Kings Canyon Resort in late May 2006 and we did enjoy our stay there a lot. Before the trip, I also found the bed-rate quite high. When we arrived, we found it's really worth the money. The room was quite large, with 3 single beds and 1 double bed, 1 TV set, 1 fridge and 1 dining table. Probably that was not peak season, I just shared the room with my friend. It's more a shared hotel room than a typical backpacker dorm room. The staff was nice too, though I was never sucessful in getting email confirmations from them for our bed bookings. :P

I spent 4 hours for the Rim Walk and it's my favourite part of my Red Centre adventure. It's not as difficult as I heard but do bring enough water :)

Happy Hiking!!!

Cheers
backpackerbaby

oopss.. one typo, "browsing" not "browing".

and one more thing: you can join some free ranger guided walks and talks in different locations of the Red Centre. Go to http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/parks/walks/guidedwalks.html and download the timetable for details.

Have fun.

cheers
backpackerbaby